In The Aftermath
by skyefalling
Summary: Frozen AU, in which Anna was too late in saving Elsa. What would have happened following her death. Very tragic and dark. Major character deaths. Please read and review!


**A/N I uploaded this story a while ago on another account, which i lost the details for, so ive uploaded it again here. I didn't then realize how tragic and dark it is, sorry about that. Thanks for reading, be nice :)**

"Your sister is dead!"

"What?"

Elsa's breath was caught in her throat, and she felt as though her heart had stopped. _No. No. No._ She stared up into those menacing green eyes. Her body felt weak.

"You froze her heart!" Han's shouted.

_Anna_. Elsa fell to the ground, gasping for air. _Anna was dead. Elsa had struck her with ice, and killed her. She was a monster, a murderer, an evil, horrible person. She didn't deserve to be queen, or to have freedom, or even to live. And Anna was dead._

Elsa heard the sound of metal hitting bone, and didn't even have time to scream before everything went black.

x.x

Her face showed a thousand different emotions. Shock, anger, fear, pain, revulsion and utter despair. Her eyes were wide and full of tears, and her mouth open as if she was about to say something, one of her arms slightly raised in front of her, the other supporting her weak body on the ground.

_Not Elsa, please, please not her._

"N..No," She whispered, her small voice breaking, "Els-"

Before she could continue, Anna's body was frozen solid, the tears still on her face.

Kristoff was transfixed in place, staring in utter horror at the scene in front of him. _Blood_, he thought numbly, _so much blood_. Elsa had hit the ice, her limbs at odd angles, her body lifeless. The blade had stuck her just above her rib cage, and the sound of bones being shattered still rung in Kristoff's ears. Her platinum hair was trailing over her shoulder, resting in the pool of blood that was quickly spreading around her, turning the ice scarlet.

Hans stood over her, his sword in his hand, a triumphant smile on his face. He turned his head to stare at Kristoff, and then at the ice statue next to him that had once been a smiling red haired girl.

"I won!" Hans shouted, though it wasn't so much to Kristoff as to himself. "The Queen is dead!"

The snowstorm continued to range on, the cold piercing Kristoff's face, but he still found himself unable to move, unable to take his eyes off the heap on the ground. She looked so young, so innocent. And now she was dead.

Kristoff finally found his voice. "You killed her!" He yelled, "You murdered the queen!"

"She deserved it," Hans replied gleefully, "she froze her sisters heart"

Kristoff suddenly realised the full extent of what happened, and looked over at the place where Anna had been standing a second ago. She was frozen in place, her whole body made of ice, her blank eyes staring at nothing.

"You are evil!" Kristoff spat, anger pulsing through him, "You won't get away with this!"

"Won't I?"

Hans's bloodstained sword was suddenly in the air again, and he started advancing on Kristoff, a look of madness in his eyes.

Kristoff blinked back tears, looking over at Anna's frozen figure, and Elsa's lifeless body.

Then he ran.

x.x

It wasn't Arandelle anymore. Elsa's coronation had been the last day of happiness, and of summer. The blizzards had not stopped, if anything they had grown more wild and stronger since the Queen's death. It was almost poetic, Kristoff sometimes thought bitterly, a last act of defiance against the man who had murdered her and tried to take over the kingdom. Not that anyone in Arandelle had time for poetry or songs anymore. They were all too busy trying to survive.

The streets, which would have once been filled with happy townspeople, was empty, and most of the houses and shops had long since been abandoned.

The sun had just begun to set, and the bottle of whiskey Kristoff had purchased earlier was already half empty. He knew that he had to be drunk to get through tonight, to evade the nightmares that were sure to come. The winter made it harder to tell the time of the year, but Kristoff knew. He had never lost count, and today was different. Kristoff didn't feel like Kristoff Bjorman anymore. His eyes were sunken, his hair shaggy and falling out. His spirit had long since left him. Perhaps it was when Sven, weak and tired from lack of nourishment, had fallen asleep and never woken up. Maybe it was when he had started drinking. He didn't know, or care.

Because everyone was gone, and all that was left was him. He was the only one who knew about the two sisters. He was the only one who had seen the deadly snow queen, who knew, who had seen her after the coronation. He remembered her as she really had been, a young woman who was no more than a girl, who had locked herself away because she was so afraid of rejection. He remembered the fear that had plagued her,and the pure look of desperation he had seen in her eyes when she realised that she had hurt Anna.

Anna. Kristoff closed his eyes, trying to remember her. It seemed strange to think that they had only known each other for a day, yet he had felt such a strange connection to that fiery girl.

Kristoff sighed. He had been meaning to do this for a while, yet he had always been to afraid, for some stupid reason. Today seemed as good a time as any, and he started to walk along the empty streets towards the castle.

She had been placed outside the castle gates, that same look of hopelessness and despair still frozen on her face. It was a cruel joke, Kristoff thought. Hans had placed Anna's statue there as a reminder to the townspeople what Elsa had done. He had made sure that everyone knew what a danger she had been, enough to kill her own sister.

_She's still beautiful_, Kristoff thought, _even when she's frozen solid_. He had reached his destination, and was staring at Anna. Her eyes were so bright and full of life, he thought. Kristoff took another gulp of whiskey, grimacing as it burnt his throat, then without thinking, placed his hand on Anna's cold hard cheek. He wondered if there was anything of Anna left in there.

"Anna?," He said, his voice hoarse. He had no idea what he was doing, but it felt right somehow.

"Its, um been a year. Since, you know. People are calling it the great freeze. Stupid name if you ask me."

He sat down next to the statue, not caring that the ground was wet and icy.

"I'm, well, i don't really know what i'm saying," He continued, "I hardly knew you. And i wasnt even that nice to you. I only cared about my stupid sled. And you're dead, and Elsa's dead, and people are starving and dying, and i don't know what to do anymore!"

He closed his eyes, remembering. The whiskey bottle was at his mouth, and the burning liquid was down his throat again.

"Its still winter. The snowstorm hasn't stopped for a whole year. I used to think ice was so amazing and beautiful. It was my life. Now everywhere i look i see pain and suffering. The townspeople aren't like me. I grew up on the mountains, im used to the cold. But the people were so used to summer. Nothing will grow now, and hardly any ships can get past the frozen sea. No one has enough food any more. Hans started ordering people to work in the mines. There were so many bodies, so many graves. I was one of the lucky ones" Kristoff's voice cracked, "Hans is gone. I guess even he realised that there was no hope for Arandelle. God, its all turned to shit Anna, and i can't do anything."

He hadn't even realized that he had started to cry.

"Im such a coward," He whispered to the snowy air, "I could have tried harder to stop Hans. Or to convince people that Elsa wasn't a witch, or evil. That duke of Weaseltown, i mean," He smiled slightly at the joke, "Wesselton, convinced a lot of people that she was. But when you are starving and cold, it doesn't matter whether it was an accident or not, because she still created a winter, and you were still killed." Another gulp from the bottle, "She loved you though. When Hans told her you were dead, she hated herself so much that se let herself get killed. Elsa couldn't have lived without you"

He pulled himself up, staggering slightly, to stare into Anna's blank eyes. Through his drunken, blurred vision, he could almost imagine that they looked warm or friendly, instead of fearful.

"I'm sorry Anna. Im sorry that it all went wrong for you"

Kristoff drained the last of the whiskey, and wiped his face with his wet gloves. This had been a stupid idea. Anna had never really loved him properly. She had been a princess, him a weird, ice obsessed common boy. Kristoff took one last look at Anna, and staggered away. As he walked, he found himself thinking about the two sisters that he had met a year ago. The loud, clumsy, adorable redhead who had tried so hard to make everything right. The striking blonde, who had the power of an army yet was always so afraid. The magical talking snowman, who had longed for warmth and hugs. Even the giant snow monster that had chased him and Anna down a cliff.

He walked down an empty street, humming to himself, pushing the memories of a time long forgotten out of his head. He doubted he would remember it tomorrow anyway.


End file.
